I still have a suitcase in York

It is 117 days ago today that I left for York. Subtract 15 days for Christmas holidays and 4 for the short trip back at the end of October to play my part in the visitation of the Computer Science curriculum: tomorrow I will reach the 99th day of my stay away from home (including travel days). That sounds like a long period, but it feels like no time at all.

I gave another final presentation today, at the PLASMA group. It was a bit hard working up the energy to prepare it properly: not only was yesterday's dinner copious enough to make me skip breakfast, but also I wanted to get some packing and cleaning done. It was not entirely clear what course the evening would take, but I did not want to leave everything to the last minute.

Packing is a good deal easier than for coming here. Straightforward really: you have two suitcases and it is exactly clear what should go into them. There are some optional items like the towel I bought here, but if there is no room then I can just leave all that behind. For the rest it's just a question of cramming everything into as little space as possible.

Raw theory

When I did get around to the preparation for my talk, it was in the end just a matter of organising the theory for control automata that I have developed (and for the greater part implemented) during the past few weeks: this crowd can read operational semantics, so there is much less need to package it. The advantage of having to tell someone what you have achieved is always that you gain a better overview yourself as well, and after having presented the technical details I felt quite good about it.

Stock of fruit yorghurts, earlier this week

Afterwards I sunk into a black hole, from which I emerged only when it was time for the very last farewell drink, at 17:00 in the Glasshouse. This evolved into two pints of Grolsch, but for everyone except me it is an ordinary working day of course, so no adventures. Lots of "nice to get to know you" and "have a safe trip home"; then I was on the first stage of that trip, back to the flat. At 19:00 I had my last meal at the Edge, at 20:00 my "landlord" dropped by, at 21:00 Nikos came to collect the bike. Some final cleaning; as I write this, the room is once more in pristine condition, empty and bare. Even the fridge is pretty well emptied: I will leave behind half a bottle of tomato ketchup and half a carton of margarine. There are also some portions left of the excellent fruit yoghurt I have enriched my Yorkish diet with, but those I will still eat.

One final night. It's funny: I live in a building with almost only Asian students, and they are on the whole the quietest of people. I think the soundproofing is no better than you would expect of student housing, but except for the gate to the bike shed, which is directly below me and closes with an almighty clang, I have not heard my neighbours at all, the entire time. Tonight of all nights, however, there seems to be some party going on, requiring especially a lot of giggling. I have no doubt I will sleep well nonetheless: the vagaries of saying goodbye have taken their toll, I am now very tired. Taxi has been ordered for tomorrow, I can't think of anything I might have forgotten.